The dark side of ‘post’graduate degrees
In your pursuit of postgraduate qualifications, don’t be tempted by diploma mills. postgradasia investigates these shady outfits and their tactics.
Many busy working people are now turning to distance learning courses to get the academic qualifications they need for career advancement. Indeed, the Internet provides access to thousands of reputable online and correspondence-based course providers that offer opportunities to earn a genuine academic degree.
However, with the increasing sophistication of affordable home printing solutions like software and laser printers, an old scam is hitching a ride on the wave of online education.
Diploma mills – self-proclaimed ‘universities’ that are actually companies issuing false degree certificates for a relatively inexpensive fee – have been around for a long time. However, they have proliferated in the age of the Internet. Advertising through mass emails, social networking sites and impressive-looking websites, diploma mills lure those looking for the quickest and easiest path to obtain an MBA, PhD and other academic qualifications without investing time or effort.
These so-called institutions of higher learning are usually staffed by a single person receiving payments and filling orders. In addition to the degree certificate, some mills throw in an academic transcript, a recommendation letter from the dean and a certificate attesting membership in the student council – along with a nice frame to display the certificate in. They may even provide a telephone number for prospective employers to call when verifying educational credentials.
Spot the scammer
Some diploma mills adopt names that are confusingly similar to reputable colleges and institutions. These include:
- Cambridge International University, South Africa
- University of England at Oxford
- LaSalle University, Louisiana, USA
- Columbia State University, California/Louisiana, USA
- University of Berkley, Michigan, USA
- Redding University, California, USA.
Watch out for window dressing
Most diploma mills simply ask for full payment up front and you’ll get your diploma in the post in a few days. However, some add an extra layer or two of window dressing to make customers feel like they’ve actually done some work to earn their ‘degree’.
Academic credit for ‘life experience’
Today, most quality MBA courses require applicants to have at least two years of work experience (usually management-level) to qualify for entry into the course. Diploma mills twist this by claiming that any work experience fulfils the academic requirements for the course. In many cases this coincidentally excuses the ‘student’ from having to take any classes or exams at all (of course, only if their cheque or credit card payment clears).
Homework helper
This variation of the ‘life experience’ scam informs students that they need to submit – together with their payment of course – a 10-page (or 20-, or 40-, or 100-page) dissertation or thesis on the topic of the degree ordered. The dissertation will be ‘graded’, and even if it’s gibberish, the student will receive a diploma within a few days or weeks – again, as long as the payment clears.
Accreditation
Many diploma mills rattle off a long list of industry accreditations to claim that they are legitimate, but it’s important to check into who the accrediting agencies are – or if they even exist. For example, an online ‘university’ may claim full accreditation by the Society of Colleges and Universities of Management (SCUM) — until you discover that they are the founding and only member.
Be especially watchful for UNESCO ‘accreditations’; UNESCO does not have the authority to accredit institutions of higher learning.
Variations on a theme
Just kidding
A few diploma mills are careful to include a tiny line of fine print – sometimes an easily removable sticker – on the ‘degree certificate’, declaring it to be a novelty or joke item. As long as the customer/victim has agreed to pay the purchase price, the diploma mill can legally claim that they are only selling fancy pieces of paper to customers who are aware of this fact.
Replace a ‘lost’ diploma
Lost your Harvard MBA in a flood? The dog ate your law degree from Oxford? No worries! This kind of diploma mill will accept your sworn word that you did indeed previously attend the university that issued the diploma you lost, and re-issue you a new copy on their behalf with all signatures and seals affixed. For an extra fee, some will even upgrade you from third to first class honours.
You only hurt yourself
Regrettably, the main reason that diploma mills continue to exist is because of the complacency and complicity of their customers. Among the people who obtain fast-track degrees, very few are truly innocent victims.
John Bear, a US-based expert on diploma mills and fake degrees who worked with the FBI in the 1970s to shut down thousands of diploma mills across the US, said: ‘It is like putting a time bomb in your résumé. It could go off at any time, with dire consequences. The people who sell fake degrees will probably never suffer at all, but the people who buy them often suffer mightily.’
More chillingly, Bear pointed out, those who purchase fake medical or healthcare career-related qualifications have the potential to cause untold damage to their patients.
The consequences of buying a fake diploma can be devastating to a career. Aside from the obvious public humiliation when you are found out, word will certainly get around your industry and you may find yourself blacklisted from consideration for other jobs. It could also dash any hopes for an international career: in some countries, knowingly falsifying academic credentials – which includes purchasing a fake degree – to apply for a job is equivalent to fraud, with penalties ranging from fines to jail time.
So if you are considering an online education or distance learning programme, be sure to avoid any shortcuts that seem too good to be true.
This article first appeared in postgradsia 2011, Issue 1.
